The Lom people (), also known by non-Loms as Bosha or Posha (; ; ; ), are an ethnic group originating from the Indian subcontinent. Their Lomavren language is a mixed language, combining an Indo-Aryan substrate with Armenian.
Number Lom/Bosha in Soviet Transcaucasia Year Armenia Georgia Azerbaijan 1926 1939 1959 1970 1979 1989 It is difficult to determine the exact number of Bosha people, due to the dispersed and often mostly-assimilated nature of the group. Estimates suggest only a few thousand of the people can be found across Armenia and Georgia, while the Armenian Government's census reports only 50 living in the former.
Distribution Concentrations of Bosha can be found in Yerevan and Gyumri in Armenia. Some of the Bosha in Armenia have adopted the Armenian language and partially assimilated with the larger Armenian population.Wixman. The Peoples of the USSR. p. 30
In Georgia they live in such cities as Tbilisi, Kutaisi, Akhalkalaki and Akhaltsikhe. They are noted for such occupations as sievemakers.
In Turkey, the Loms or Poshas adopted Islam at the 19th century and assimilated into Turkish culture. They mostly live in Artvin, Rize, Ardahan and Kars and identify themselves as Meskhetian Turks, hiding their Lom origins, while taking Armenian words from their contact with the Hemshin.
References
Further reading Marushiakova, Elena and Popov, Vesselin. "The 'Gypsies' (Dom – Lom – Rom) In Southern Caucasus (Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan)" Preserving the Roma Memories. Festschrift in Honor of Dr. Adam Bartosz, hrsg. v. Kyuchukov, Hristo, Marushiakova, Elena, Popov, Vesselin (Roma 7)., 2020. IJBF Online . Accessed 2023-07-14.
External links
Marushiakova, Elena and Vesselin Popov. 2016. Gypsies of Central Asia and Caucasus. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Roma and Gypsies